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Rudolf von Gottschall
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Title: Withered Leaves. Vol. I. (of III)
A Novel
Author: Rudolf von Gottschall
Translator: Bertha Ness
Release Date: February 23, 2011 [EBook #35371]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK WITHERED LEAVES. VOL. I. (OF III) ***
Produced by Charles Bowen, from page scans provided by Google Books
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1. Page scan source: Google Books http://books.google.com/books?id=auUBAAAAQAAJ&source
2. The diphthong oe is represented by œ.
OPINION OF THE
SATURDAY REVIEW
ON THE
GERMAN EDITION
OF
WITHERED LEAVES.
"'Withered Leaves' is a highly effective novel,
* * * * * cleverly constructed, full of varied
incident, excellently written, and indicating the
accomplished literary craftsman on every page."
WITHERED LEAVES.
A Novel,
BY
Rudolf von Gottschall.
FROM THE GERMAN,
By BERTHA NESS.
Translator of Werner's "Riven Bonds" and "Sacred Vows."
THREE VOLUMES.
AUTHORISED TRANSLATION.
VOL. I.
London:
REMINGTON AND CO.,
5, ARUNDEL STREET, STAND, W.C.
1879.
[All Rights Reserved.]
CONTENTS OF VOLUME I.
CHAP.
I.--
On the Fuchs-spitze.
II.--
The Blue Campanula.
III.--
Dual Love and Evil Repute.
IV.--
Bathing Pictures.
V.--
The Amber Merchant.
VI.--
On Land and Sea.
VII.--
The Ordensburg.
VIII.--
On Lago Maggiore.
IX.--
An Election Dinner.
X.--
The Proposal.
XI.--
In Neukuhren.
XII.--
Under the Pear Tree.
WITHERED LEAVES.
CHAPTER I.
ON THE FUCHS-SPITZE.
Large and full stood the moon in the eastern sky, and reflected its broken light in the troubled waves which the
Baltic Sea cast upon the coast of Samland; it silvered the tangled thicket of the ravine through which here and there
quivered a ray of the woodland stream, with its scanty supply of water, as with difficulty it forced its way amongst the
stones onward to the ocean. The primordiate blocks of granite, which kept watch at the estuary of the streamlet, gained
a venerable appearance in the light of the planets; but more venerable still appeared the primeval oaks of Perkunos,
with their silvery tips, as they rose upon the rocky projection, and down whose lightning-struck stems the moonlight
glided softly.
Was it a priestess of the old heathen deities who stood there, in her light robe, leaning against the trunk of the
mightiest oak, her gaze turned outwards upon the wide sea, whose opposite breakers washed the land of the ancient
Vikings? But no! The heathen priestesses, who sacrificed at the oaks of their gods, were venerable women, while that
slender figure bore all the witchery of youth, and looked much too gentle for such a horrible craft! So much spiritual
tenderness lay in her large, widely-opened gazelle-like eyes, and besides--many, many centuries ago the days of
Paganism had passed away, even although then, as now, the waves beat upon the strand, and the tops of the oaks
rustled, for we live in the nineteenth century; old Herkus Monte and the other Nathang and Samland leaders of armies
have long since been replaced by the commanders of the King of Prussia's regiments and battalions, and for two years
this coast, like the whole land of Prussia, has been ruled over by that spirited Hohenzollern Prince, Friedrich Wilhelm
IV.
"How it blows," said the Regierungsrath, as he buttoned his overcoat more closely, "I do not love these evening
amusements; I find that the sea makes a much deeper impression by day, and then, one does not expose oneself to the
danger of paying for these so-called enjoyments of nature with rheumatic pains."
"But, my husband," replied the Regierungsräthin, a fine woman, a thorough Lithuanian, whose cradle stood on the
shores of Memel, "you are indeed too prosaic! One must just for once see the ocean by moonlight; besides Evchen has
cherished this wish for long. Two weeks already have we been in Warnicken, and always have gone to bed as the
moon rose."
"We do not go in for marine painting," replied the Regierungsrath drily, as his chin disappeared farther and farther
into his enormous white cravat, "and Eva, too, will take cold. The girl has a delicate constitution; you, dear wife, judge
all the world by yourself; but we are not all so fortunate as to possess weather-proof giant natures. How the girl stands
there in her light summer dress! Eva, wrap your shawl round you, a cold breeze from the north is blowing."
The girl awoke as if from a dream, she wrapped herself obediently in the shawl that she carried upon her arm, and
hastened towards her father and mother, who were standing against the foremost railing of the projection.
"Oh, how beautiful, how enchantingly beautiful it is here," cried Eva, with her heart full, and tears standing in her
eyes, tears such as only youth can shed in overflowing moods, when the charm of nature presciently awakes gloomy
feelings in the heart.
The Regierungsrath could not explain these tears to himself, because every rational cause for them was wanting, and
indeed every irrational one; any kind of wish denied would speedily have solved the mystery for him. Therefore he
made the cold wind responsible, and folded his daughter still more closely in her shawl. Her mother, on the contrary,
who had equally little sympathy with such-like emotional outbreaks, but knew better how to divine their cause, cried,
reprovingly--
"Learn to wean yourself from over-sensitiveness, dear child! How often already have I been obliged to tell you so!
You must learn gradually to control your feelings. All this is very beautiful: moonshine and ocean's tide, groups of trees
and wooded vallies, and the steep precipitous rocks; yet one must not admire it too much; it is after all an old tale, and
one must not appear too new to the world. What would people say to it? At some period one must leave school
behind, and enter into life."
Eva pressed herself deprecatingly against her mother, whose gigantic form towered above the slender girl; but her
father, after having taken a pinch of snuff, assumed a complacent tone of voice, and began to expound his views as to
the capabilities of profit possessed by the Samland sea-bathing places. Eva had ample leisure to survey the beautiful
picture of the moonlight evening, to follow the lines of the surf-surrounded coasts to the uttermost foreland, and ever
again to lower her gaze into the mystery of the Wolf's schlucht, above which the most luxuriant vegetation rose and fell
like green breakers in the sough of the night wind.
Then voices suddenly arose from the paths which led upward through the wood to the Fuchs-spitze; they were not
the melodies of strolling singers, but the music of artists. One female voice, by its beautiful full tone, made itself
conspicuous amongst all the others, and that singer's execution appeared to be by no means inconsiderable. The
Regierungsrath found this interruption to his discourse the more disagreeable, because he was about to make a few
propositions by which sea-bathing places, such as this romantic Warnicken, could be raised out of their rude primitive
condition into fashionable watering places.
In the meanwhile the party of male and female singers had reached the summit, their hats and coats garlanded with
wreaths of leaves. They appeared to be in a most lively mood, and broke out into loud rejoicings when they had gained
the point whence a view could be obtained; some clapped their hands, and at a signal, which an elderly gentleman gave
with a walking-stick used as a conductor's bâton, all began to sing a most artistically correct Jodler. In the faces and in
the whole demeanour of the party there lay that peculiarity by which actors and actresses are unmistakable even in their
exterior; an air of mental freedom, the assurance and self-sufficiency of manner, and at the same time the appearance of
struggling after an ideal, which even those know how to maintain who follow their art as a rather rude handicraft. In fact,
they were singers from the provincial capital, who were wandering along the shore for a holiday excursion, but had set
up their head-quarters in the favourite seaside watering place Cranz, which by its sociable doings atoned for what its
desolate strand lacked in natural beauty.
It soon became apparent that the most prominent female person in the group, a tall figure with southern glowing
eyes, with noble aristocratic features, and dark hair that shone amongst the green oak branches with the polish of
ebony, was that accomplished singer, who, during the party's ascent, had borne away the prize of song. Leaning over
the balustrade, she warbled a melody into the night air, with trills and cadences irreproachably executed, while the fuller
notes were uttered with most soul-felt intensity of expression.
"Bravo, Signora Bollini!" cried the elderly gentleman, who had previously waved the bâton, "even the most
unfavourable critic, the most venomous monster that lurks in any newspaper's crevice, would be obliged to write a
laudatory criticism upon this performance. Besides you are in wonderfully good voice."
"You know, dear Conductor," replied the Signora, "that I possess an impressionable soul; here in free beautiful
nature I regulate my powers quite differently from what I do when I stand behind you at the piano, looking down upon
its venerable smooth surface, and the pages of music upon the lifeless paper, that I am to transpose into ringing coin.
One must have illusions, best of conductors; but to sing to order, at the appointed time, as announced on the black
board, for wages which themselves sometimes belong to illusions, takes away all inclination, and acts most depressingly
upon one's mind. Art can only thrive in freedom!"
"It is well known to us all," said the Conductor, "that our beautiful prima donna belongs to those natures, which, in
the language of art, may be designated as cappricciose, and which only with difficulty can accustom themselves to any
regular walk in life, or indeed to any rules of business."
"Now you are talking of business again," said the Signora, "naming art and business in one breath, it is enough to
make all the muses take to flight!"
"Well, well," replied the Director, "everything in the world will have its season, and as regards business, prime
donne do not understand that so badly when honorariums for their performances, or profitable paragraphs, are
concerned."
"Not seldom, dear Master," said the singer, with a winning expression of countenance, which suddenly became
somewhat gentler, and more amiable. That which she had said about her impressionability, had been confirmed by the
rapid change of her face's expression; yes, it betokened cordial acquiescence, most unhesitating reciprocation of
everything that was friendly; the greatest readiness to follow the other's moods, the trains of thought, certainly as it
seemed, without that reserve which stricter womanliness required, as the flattering speeches by which she now sought to
assuage the Conductor, contained something syren-like; every word was a caress, and only slight mockery, which
sometimes echoed from them, showed that no real affection prompted their utterance.
This party was very disagreeable to the Regierungsrath; he did not love art, he liked to avoid all artists; in his eyes
closer intercourse with them did not appear suitable to his position and he was glad to withdraw himself from the
brotherly manner in which the disciples of art seek to place themselves on a footing of equality with all other mortals. He
was on the point of taking flight from the Fuchs-spitze, which had suddenly become a Parnassus to him, when he was
prevented doing so by the greeting of a young man, who released himself from the oak-leaf-wreathed group and
stepped towards him.
"Good evening, Herr Regierungsrath Kalzow," rang the cordial greeting accompanied by a hearty shake of the
hand, with which the female members of the Kalzow family were also favoured.
"Ah, Herr Doctor Schöner," replied the Rath, "what brings you here, then, in such jovial company?"
"You know," replied the young Doctor of Law, "that the ministry puts a stop to my political career, will not grant me
the venia legendi at the University. Thus I have been obliged to exchange the useful for the agreeable; I have dedicated
myself as dramatic scenery assistant to the theatre, and belong to a certain extent to the strolling troupe. We have just
come from Memel, where we stirred up the Jack tars to enthusiasm with our melodies; then we waded through the sand
of the Kurische Nehrung; sailed across the waters of the Kurische Haff in a smoking steamboat and settled down
domestically in Cranz. The opera namely, and I, who although I really live on very bad terms with the trebles and
general bass, yet am more enthusiastic about the operatic than the dramatic company, and at least enjoy my holidays
with the former; the ballet, too, is represented here! Look, that languishing lady there is our première danseuse, does
she not look something like one of the moon's rays that had been left behind? Each of her pas is a danced sigh. None of
these ladies will receive a part through me; therefore I believe in the disinterestedness of their love glances."
The Doctor had only made these confessions to the Rath. Eva, with her mother, had retreated farther into the
shadowy net of a Perkunos oak; but suddenly a peculiar pallor lay upon her features.
Young Schöner was well known to her; she had often seen and spoken to him in a friend's house, and as he strove
very eagerly to gain her good-will, she had not remained perfectly indifferent to him.
Indeed, he might well win a girlish heart by his uncommon character. He behaved much more romantically than all
adherents of art; his velvet coat, certainly, had been neat and glossy when it came from the tailor; yet it was terribly
receptive of everything that flies about in the air, and soon lost all its charms of freshness.
A wide, turned-down shirt collar, without any intervening neckerchief, lay extended over his shoulders, like linen
upon a bleaching-ground; a student's velvet cap sat defiantly upon his brow, even although it had now forfeited the silver
Albertus, the proud badge of the academical citizens of Albertina, and the thorn stick in his hand quite answered to that
one which the "wild man" carries in popular pictures.
His long black hair, however, which fell down upon his shoulders, enframed an interesting face, which was sharply,
but not badly cut, and was surmounted by a pair of fiery and remarkable eyes.
The young Doctor, indeed, was an aspiring young fellow, and had allowed several poetical larks to rise, whose
warbling notes had been heard afar through Germany.
At two-and-twenty years of age he was a species of celebrity, and celebrity is often the easily-obtained fruit of
fashion. At that time everything was the fashion that came from the Baltic shore, where the beacons of political freedom
blazed.
Thus young Doctor Schöner was deemed a genius--that is a strong letter of recommendation to a young girl, who
has just left school--and, therefore, even the keen female eye does not perceive those tiny specks upon the velvet coat
and that unfashionable hair, which detests the scissors.
The young poet now went towards Eva, and commenced a conversation with her about the beauty of the evening,
and the beauties in the party of actresses, extolling Signora Bollini with glowing eulogy.
Eva, who leaned against the trunk of the giant oak, would have liked best to hide herself in it like a dryad, so as not
to be obliged to listen to this praise, not to look at this goddess of art.
"Doctorchen, whither have you vanished?" suddenly rang the Signora's mellifluous voice, audible far around, and
stepping nearer, she said, with a graceful inclination towards mother and daughter: "Ah, with the blue-bell, in the
shadow of the sacred oak! You must spare my amanuensis tome to-day, ladies. He knows the road, the path, the
names of all the hills on the coast, and the little bays--he is my map."
At the Signora's first words, Schöner had retreated from Eva, as though he had been caught upon forbidden paths.
He introduced the ladies to one another, and immediately disappeared amongst the group of actors.
After a few polite words, which she had exchanged with the Regierungsrath's family, the Signora was back again in
the midst of her own people.
Again a bright song resounded, accompanied by the waves breaking still louder on the shore.
Annoyed at the long stay, the Regierungsrath gave the signal to return home, and as they departed Eva could still
hear the singer's merry words.
"Now ladies, away into the surging tide! Who would not wish to be a moonlight-water-fairy for once? I feel like a
spirit of the elements, and my adorers have long since declared me to be an Undine, because in their opinion I have no
soul. All the same--souls are the cheapest things in the world, and the smallest State has many hundreds of thousands of
them! Besides, one must be able to exist without a soul, if one can only offer some substitute for it."
"Bravo!" cried Schöner; "long live our Undine!"
"Therefore, gentlemen, abonnement suspendu for the Baltic Sea? To-night it belongs to the ladies, and you return
quietly to the hotel. You need have no fear that I shall transform myself down below in the breaking surf into a
Melusina, and perhaps, coquette with a fish's tail. I am no silvery-scaled monster, but both on land and in water a
woman comme il faut. En avant, ladies! Here are no hearses as in Cranz; here one springs from the shore into the
waves, and the only Actæon who plays the spy upon us is the moon! It shall have its horns; it will soon enter upon its
last quarter!"
Ladies and gentlemen descended the Fuchs-spitze on separate paths.
Eva had not lost a word of the singer's speech; it caused her to shiver uncomfortably, and she wrapped herself
more closely in her shawl.
"An intolerable party," said the Regierungsrath to his wife; "so bold, so impudent."
"I do not understand," replied she, "how young Doctor Schöner can find pleasure in it."
"I understand it quite well! It is just the society for such ill-regulated minds! He would never have been fitted for a
political career; it is not that he has no head, but everything ferments and surges in him in wild confusion."
"Perhaps he would settle down in time."
"Never! A thorn bends itself early to the form which it is to assume, and an official must bend himself betimes; I
mean by this, control and govern himself, as we have only one gospel, that of duty!"
"He is thoughtless with girls, too; without exception, he pays attention to all, if they only belong in any degree to the
fair sex. Evchen, you have met him at Justizrath Spillner's; he is said to have distinguished you, too."
Eva bent down and gathered a large-belled campanula, which grew by the roadside.
"It is fortunate," said the Regierungsrath, "that he has not yet dared to enter our house; in his poetry he has uttered
such thoughts for the world's reform, that I should fall into bad odour with the whole of my colleagues, if he forced
himself into my society."
"Perhaps he fears the same with his good friends," replied the Regierungsräthin, shrugging her shoulders; "as these
so-called Liberals make their comments also, and we are certainly in their bad books."
"It is incredible, but you may be right. What have we not had to experience since our King's accession to the
throne! Parties are formed, there is an Opposition, and we, who until now only had to command in order to meet with
obedience, are confronted by resistance! Any young Doctor of Law thinks he can dictate to a President of Council
what he is to do or leave undone."
"Calm yourself, my dear husband! In return he is in this prima donna's fetters, and he must obey her signs, as you
have seen, and be a slave to her. A beautiful woman, certainly!"
"I did not look so closely at her."
"I know better, old man! I believe you could write her passport, mentioning all her peculiar marks of distinction. It
does not matter! There is no danger in it, as she only seeks young admirers; I wager that Doctor Schöner's baptismal
certificate is dated a few years after hers."
"I do not comprehend," said Kalzow, "how any man can place himself under the command of a feminine being!
What becomes of manly dignity in such a case?"
At these words the Regierungsrath brought out a cigar-case so as to light himself a Havannah cigar.
"What are you doing, old man? How often have I already told you that you shall not smoke a cigar in the evening
just before going to bed! It does not agree with you, the Doctor advised you not to do it; I forbid it positively in his
name."
While speaking these words the Frau Regierungsräthin drew herself up to her full height.
"Then, at least, I will have another glass of beer over there."
"Nothing! That too is injurious for you! In other matters you are quite right! It is a disgrace to bow to the orders of
such a theatrical princess; but to obey a sensible woman has never brought evil or dishonour."
Amid such conversations the family had reached the small fisherman's cottage in which they lived; Eva soon went to
her attic-chamber, locked the door, opened the window and looked out into the moonlight night. Silently she had
listened to her parents' discussion; only a few days ago she had taken young Doctor Schöner under her protection
against all accusations, to-day she could do so no longer! She had been credulous enough to believe the Doctor's
words of flattery; had he not distinguished her amongst her girl friends! As yet no word of love had been spoken, but a
liking for the gifted young man had found utterance in her heart.
People talk so much of first and only love--and yet, if one looks closer into it, all kinds of budding affections, which
never attain their full development, precede this first love; near the first rose there are plenty of buds which hang broken
and faded on the stalk; many side-chapels where love erects itself modest altars, are forsaken before it strides to the
high one in the great nave of the church. And no girl leaves sixteen or seventeen years behind her, without having
obtained in a brother's friend, in a neighbour, in a vis-à-vis, a small ideal for the preliminary studies of love. There is a
heart's idolatry even in earliest youth; yet the roots of such affections only rest loosely in the lightest soil.
Eva's first attempt at love was devoted to the young Doctor; she had erected a little temple for him in her heart, and
adorned his picture with many floral wreaths of tender feelings. It is true her friends had often cautioned her in joke
against the homage of the fickle poet; she ascribed it to envy, which even amongst young female friends is not a rarity.
But now she had seen, with her own eyes, how he had bestowed his admiration upon another proud beauty, yes
wandered with her through the country; she had heard how confidently that other had asserted her rights over him; it
had dealt a stab to her heart, and it was a consolation for her, when her father and mother expressed themselves so
hostilely towards him: a defiant feeling became powerful within her, she would hear nothing more from him, release
herself entirely from him, drive away his picture as one wipes a dream out of one's eyes.
Yet slightly below the surface as the roots of a love, in this case not at all serious, had struck, it was a mixture of
bitter and painful emotions which besieged the girl's heart, as it dug up its first shy affection.
Was that not the roar of the sea that sounded from afar? Was it not the proud Melusina who sang as she bathed her
beautiful form in the billows. How small, how speechlessly she herself had stood beside that other, yonder by the oak!
What a homely little flower was she herself beside that splendid exotic! With what spirit, with what fire that other one
could speak--and how shyly she herself brought out such every-day words. Was it a marvel, that the poet turned away
from her and followed the admired singer? But even if she were not beautiful, not proud, not intellectual, she yet had a
sense of her own worth, and would not allow herself to be insulted with impunity.
Come ye waves, and if ye have kissed the dark hair of the bathing beauty, then rush upon the strand and efface for
evermore the name of the poet, which, with the point of a parasol, love has written upon the sand; efface it there, and
also--in my heart.
Scalding tears gushed from the maiden's eyes, she shut the window that the surging of the distant sea might not
reverberate in her dreams like a triumphal song of victorious love! Weeping, she threw herself upon her bed, but then
slept soundly and well, as youth can sleep.
She owned a determined mind, she had indeed cast clods of earth upon the coffin of a first, tender affection, which,
as yet, had hardly outgrown the incipient bud.
CHAPTER II.
THE BLUE CAMPANULA.
Woodland gloom--high beeches form a temple's hall--mighty oaks keep watch before it; in their midst a green glade
in which a hill rises clad with weeping willows and large fronded ferns growing on every side.
Eva sits upon the hill, she has fled from the forester's little house, whither the party of visitors from Warnicken had
made an excursion, which was presided over by the Regierungsrath, who knew all the paths in these beautiful Samland
woods. There was the Frau Gerichtsräthin with her daughters, the Frau Banquier with her gallant son, whose Latin
mistakes made him uncertain of the upper form in the Kniephof College, but who had a flower culled from a poetical
casket ready for every lady; there were yet other ladies and girls all in light straw hats, beneath which the withered faces
of town cousins looked very odd; yet they, too, all continued their handicraft here, and the echoes of the woods and the
little room of the forest-house rang again with city tales, and with the recapitulation of every folly that occurred in the
town of pure reason.
Eva fled from this sociable circle; alone she followed a footpath into the wood, farther and farther until she reached
that solitude, that spot dedicated to melancholy, where the weeping willows rock whisperingly in the wind.
There she gathered rosemary, and, like Ophelia, began to deck herself with it; she thought of her buried love, and
her whole former life seemed so sad to her, so worthy of tears! Her mother's picture, who weeping had once left her,
rose before her, for the Frau Räthin was not her mother, the Kalzows were her adopted parents, who never spoke of
her real mother, never! No token of the latter's existence ever reached the daughter; she must tarry in some far-off
place, must have to suffer, to atone for something; never was her name mentioned in society, and little Eva, herself, for
eight years, had been Fräulein Kalzow in the eyes of God and man, and this had all been carried out correctly, and
according to the universal law of the country as the Regierungsrath always said, when he wished to denote that anything
was particularly excellent and admirable.
But Eva still saw her mother before her! it was indeed a touching picture; the pale lady with those large, enthusiastic
eyes, which the daughter had inherited; for the small, sparkling coal black eyes of her adopted mother had nothing in
common with that heritage, and she saw these orbs veiled in tears, as she had seen them at the last farewell, and thus
this picture accompanied her through life.
And again the weeping willows rustled! How gloomy was the boarding school, were the classes! Eva was no light-
hearted girl, and was avoided by the other pupils; questions were upon her lips that did not stand in the catechism, nor
in her school books; these queries displeased her teachers, all the more so, because often they could not give an answer
to the enquiries; the best meaning one amongst the governesses jokingly called Eva the little philosopher; but in the
school she was universally called the girl with the inquiring eyes. Her eyes did indeed speak many questions of her heart
to which life alone could impart a reply. Yet Eva was not happy! Her heart thirsted after love; but she did not possess
the art of winning it easily by ready acquiescence.
Once, it might be in her twelfth year, she had found a little friend, an innocent girl with merry eyes, who attached
herself to Eva like a burr. The latter even became merry in her company, beginning to jest, to play, to dance with the
child. This continued throughout one whole winter; when the little one returned after the Easter holidays, she was distant
and shy towards Eva, and withdrew entirely from her. For long Eva bore this unmerited estrangement silently, at last she
enquired its cause.
"I am not to associate with you," replied the little one, with downcast eyes, "on account of your mother--"
This word buried itself deeply in the girl's heart, and became united to all her sad thoughts; and again in the head
class of the school, an enlightened teacher, who in deep draughts had inhaled the air of pure reason which was wafted
thither from the Königsberg philosophical dyke, had made remarks about the sad consequences of false piety, which
could be seen in many near examples, and thereupon all her schoolfellows looked with meaning glances at Eva, who
became alarmed at the enigmatic nature of this insinuation.
Thus she had a right to enquire with her eyes, and with her heart; because a dark shadow fell upon her life.
And again the weeping willows rustled! should no friend then approach her, no love adorn her life? The only one of
whom she had dreamed that he might stand nearer to her heart, had become estranged from her again, and her life was
lonelier than ever!
But why the wreath of rosemary? Does he deserve such mourning, who flutters heedlessly from flower to flower?
No, he does not deserve it. And she flung the rosemary wreath aside; she left the shade of the weeping willows and
through the high, bushy ferns sprang down the hill.
"A blue campanula the proud singer called me; good, so may they ring around me, those blue bells; I will be sad no
more, I will deck myself with the joyous, open hearted children of the wood."
And she hastened into the cooler valley where the woodland rivulet rippled between alders, and plucked the tiny
bells of the wood, the flower of the manifold campanula, which like a blue ribbon intersected the valley.
"I will be glad," murmured she to herself, as, sitting upon the moss-clad roots in the shade of a wide-spreading oak,
she twined the large flowered bells into a wreath for her head, while she twisted the smaller ones into a garland, and
thus she adorned herself like a wood nymph. The green blooming girdle set off her slender form to advantage.
And she began to sing a cheerful song, as though she would take her own joyful mood by surprise.
Suddenly there arose a rustling in the bushes, and a man in shooting dress stood before her. She sprang up in alarm,
then stood still in confusion, and cast her eyes to the ground.
"I regret that I should disturb you," said the stranger, "but I felt constrained to satisfy myself as to whence came such
lovely singing."
"The wood belongs to all the world," replied she, "and above all to sportsmen."
"Like yourself, my Fräulein, I am merely a visitor here, I certainly have a right to disturb the stags and hinds, which
at such a season of the year have no claims to be spared, but on no account may I startle other living creatures out of
lovely hiding places."
Eva now raised her eyes, and regarded the stranger with a cursory glance; his figure was tall and slight, his features
seemed to be bronzed by a southern sun, his eyes were half closed, listlessness lay in their glance, but a gentle, refined
smile played upon his lips.
"I did not expect to find so charming a flower-fairy in this extensive forest, where the hart-royals dwell. You are as
completely buried beneath leaf and flowers, as a Chinese woman of the wood, because if these little bells could ring,
they would yield a far sweeter peal than that which the women of the Celestial Empire tinkle before their ancestors'
images."
"Have you heard those bells ring?" asked Eva, with that boldness, which is often merely an indication of great
embarrassment.
"Certainly, my beautiful fairy! I have heard the bells of human folly in every zone; they have much the same sound in
all parts; one flies from them, and finds them again everywhere; however, why should one destroy this charming
woodland quiet with such thoughts? But yet. Robbers everywhere! Do not be alarmed my lovely child! I am not one of
them, I only mean the hawks which hover yonder about the summits! The nightingales have already winged their
southern flight, it is a pity! Their songs would sound so exquisitely here in the valley as an accompaniment to a living
picture, to this fleur animée, the lovely campanula!"
Again Eva ventured to raise her glance, and saw a wide-open blue eye resting upon her. She had been mistaken
before, when she deemed it to be small and insignificant; she thereupon recollected that there are eyes upon which the
lids rest with heavy pressure, then suddenly seem to shake off this weight and gleam with a full, bright light.
"I am ashamed of myself," said she, already more confidentially, "it was childish folly to deck myself with these
flowers. I was sitting over there upon the hill beneath the weeping willows, you probably know the little spot. Suddenly,
my heart became filled with fear, I hastened down into the valley, and fancied I should become more cheerful, if all
these flowers' eyes looked at me when placed quite close beside me."
"Still so young and yet sad?" asked the stranger, as he drew nearer concernedly, removing his fowling piece from
his shoulder, and leaning upon it.
"Nor do I myself know why," replied Eva with embarrassment, "it seems to be wafted over us! There is indeed so
much sadness in the world."
"Yet if it does hover about in the air, it only settles and remains there where personal experience makes one
susceptible of it, and what can a young girl have experienced?"
"Little and much!"
"You speak as if you were a sybil, promulgating mysterious prophecies!"
"Ah, no, my Herr! Little that can be told, what is but little for others, but unutterably much for myself!"
"Then no bankrupt father, no dead mother, no brother fallen in a duel?"
"Nothing of that kind!"
"Perhaps even a school friend, who, married before--"
"Oh, how you scoff!"
"Or, perhaps a dear friend, who has transferred his heart to another's keeping!"
Eva became red, and looked down upon the ground; the sportsman struck his gun against the earth.
"Oh, that I could leave it alone! You are right; this scoffing tone is horrid. Yet it is a means of defence against the
world, and those who have learned to know it, at home and abroad, use it, and it becomes a habit to them; but here,
where such sweetly-charming innocence encounters me in the shadow of the tall forest trees, here I might adopt another
tone, as I feel my heart also is quite different. Truly, I feel as if in a fairy tale! If there were still enchanted princesses, I
should believe I had found one here, and I am already looking round for the monster that guards you, so that in knightly
combat I may release you from the dragon; I have an incomparable weapon; my bullet will penetrate through any scaly
armour."
"But we are talking too long, my Herr," said Eva, rising. "Excuse me, but my friends are expecting me."
"Then, of course, I must retire," replied the sportsman, as he stepped respectfully on one side.
Eva bowed pleasantly, and followed the path which led into the valley.
"May I ask, my Fräulein, where you wish to go?" said the stranger's voice, behind her; "on this road you would go
still farther into the forest! That, indeed, confirms my idea that you dwell in some invisible fairy-palace, as queen of this
wood, or that you are, after all, only a flower-spirit, that will float away to dance in the air with elves."
"I am, indeed, quite confused," said Eva, turning back. "Yonder lies the hill, with the weeping willows, and yet I
hardly even know by which road I reached it! My friends will be seeking me; they will be uneasy about me! The sun
already begins to glow with evening's red, between the tree-stems from the west, instead of beaming above their
heads."
"If you really belong to mortal beings, my Fräulein, and even to the most prosaic class of them, who are known
under the name of seaside visitors--"
"Now you are right, my Herr!"
"And if you will initiate me into the secret of the point whence you commenced this solitary wandering in the wood, I
will guide you to the right road."
Eva told the name of the forest-house where her friends were resting.
"Then you must confide yourself to my unwelcome companionship."
"I am grateful to you, my Herr!"
"Oh, is it not a little adventure for you to wander through this wilderness, accompanied by a gentleman, who happily
no longer can be accounted a young one. I certainly have experienced adventures enough in teak and palm groves, with
tigers and crocodiles, and have wandered through forests with brown and black beauties, while apes and parrots
looked on enviously; but to tell the truth, this nice little adventure in the Royal Prussian chase has a greater charm for me
than the encounters with beauties who shine in native brown like old mahogany."
They were now passing by the hill. The heather, which grew wild upon it, was bathed in the evening's crimson,
which also flooded the quivering bowed branches of the weeping willows.
Eva did not take any notice of it; she was quite absorbed in her conversation with the stranger.
"Oh, you cannot think, my Fräulein, how a man's mind develops, not only with his wider aims, but also with his
more extensive travels. So much weighed upon me; my fatherland had grown too small for me; I was a dreamer and an
enthusiast; and as such, had laden myself with guilt."
"It pleases you, doubtlessly, to accuse yourself," said Eva. "Those are generally the best people who perceive so
many dark spots in their own life."
"Did your governess tell you that?" said the sportsman, smiling. "The good lady may be mistaken."
"How disagreeable you are," said Eva, petulantly.
"Believe me, it was bad enough! Even now, when I feel myself freer, I often see the old shadow cross my path. But
in those days the world's contempt pursued me in such a manner as to crush me to the ground. Only when I convinced
myself that the world, as it is called, is merely a very small, fading portion of the great world through which I wandered,
that what is whispered and insinuated here on the East Sea, becomes of no importance already on the Adriatic, and still
less so far, far away on the Pacific, since then I became storm-proof and invulnerable to the little pin-pricks of public
opinion, to the gossip of the provincial neighbourhood. But what am I telling you! You do not yet know what all this
means, and that you do not know it, that I can see how strange the dark legend of human guilt is to you, that it is which
refreshes and benefits me so intensely. You still possess a delicate little conscience that at the outside ticks like a watch;
my own alarms me with the groaning beats of a large clock, such as that which hangs at the Kremlin in Moscow."
"If you were in earnest about it," replied Eva, "you would not pass it over in such a light tone."
"Life, thought, feeling, my Fräulein, with you are all cast in one mould. Therefore, you do not comprehend how, in a
man of the world, it is all in confusion, how often in him his soul weeps, while his thoughts spend themselves in frivolous
raillery."
"That is a bad habit," said Eva. "Why do people turn everything topsy-turvy? Nature must run its course; the tree
with its straight growth strives to attain the summit, the plant the blossom, and both Heaven! What, then, would our
good Lord say to His world if the trees wished suddenly to stand upon their heads, stirred up the earth with them, and
with their roots sought to reach the sky?"
"There are plants, though, my Fräulein, which one can turn upside down, and which then continue to grow briskly;
perhaps I am some kind of offshoot of that species. Yet, seriously speaking, my Fräulein, we stand immeasurably higher
than Nature, and, therefore, can fall immeasurably lower."
Eva seemed to be lost in meditation, when she heard her companions' voices, calling her name, sound through the
aisles of beeches.
"We are at our goal," said the sportsman, "a few more steps and at a turn of the road you will see the roof of the
forester's lodge."
"I thank you, my Herr!"
"But you shall not escape me thus! You penetrated much too far into the Royal Forest; I am a sort of assistant to
the chief Forester, and must enquire about your antecedents. If I have understood the echo of these beech-aisles
correctly, your name reminds one of Paradise, and it shall also remind me of it."
"I am called Eva, my Herr."
"Yet we no longer live in those primitive days when a Christian name sufficed to prove our identity before the
Creator and created."
"My name is Eva Kalzow!"
"And your father?"
"Regierungsrath."
"How prosaic! One meets a fairy in the wood, and her father is a Regierungsrath! And now, you live--"
"In Warnicken, my Herr!"
"Thank you; the enquiry is closed, so far as I am concerned. I am an official personage, who has neither the duty
nor the right to introduce himself by name. Think that I am the wild huntsman who traverses the woods at night with
black hounds and halloes, but by day escorts lovely women. I shall not, however, place the campanula in my herbarium,
but in a vase of fresh water, where bouquets of sweet recollections bloom. Farewell, my Fräulein!"
The stranger took leave with a courteous inclination.
Eva's glances followed him into the thicket, while the Kanzleiräthin, with her round, buxom daughter drew near from
the other side.
"You were surely not alone, Eva?" said the latter. "I heard the bushes rustle over there."
"And how we have sought you; it is late already," remarked the Kanzleiräthin, as she put on her spectacles, in order
to examine the girl from head to foot and see whether some adventure did not peep out of the folds of her dress.
"I had lost my way," said Eva, "and had fallen asleep beneath the weeping willows! There I dreamed of a wild
huntsman; he took me upon his steed, and we sped through the air like a whirlwind."
"Eva, where are you?" resounded the Regierungsrath's voice. "The mists are beginning to rise from the marshes; we
shall take cold on our way home."
"I have seen the Erl-king, papa, with the golden hoop; yet I am still alive, and you will take me home safe and
sound, and not as a dying child."
And, beginning to warble Schubert's song of the Erl-King, Eva walked on with firm steps and exalted demeanour,
in front of the home-bound party.
CHAPTER III.
DUAL LOVE AND EVIL REPUTE.
A few days later, two strangers engaged in eager conversation sat together in the garden-square, between the four
Kur-houses of Bad Neukuhren. In the one, notwithstanding that he wore fashionable summer garments, we again
recognise the sportsman of the forest, whose sun-burnt features contrasted so strongly with the light straw hat and light-
coloured clothes; the other gazed morosely from beneath an untidy felt hat, his sharp furrowed face, which was,
however, cast in a noble and somewhat elevated mould, suited the muscular figure.
He might have been taken for a sailor, owing to the power and determination that lay in his whole appearance, had
not a refined spiritual expression in his eyes shown that he was wont to occupy himself with intellectual subjects.
"I rejoice, dear Doctor, to have become better acquainted with you here," said the sportsman, "the companions of
my own position are somewhat too coolly indifferent to everything that interests me. At the Chief Forester's, things are
conducted too patriarchally, and, therefore, I fled to the sea to distract my mind. I will only return to my castle when the
rebuilding of the one wing is completed. I gave the architect the exact plan; but always to be present oneself, and to
watch its being carried out, is not in accordance with my taste. Everything unfinished is odious to me; those lime pits,
those carts of stone, those scaffoldings, make an uncomfortable impression upon me. Therefore, I accepted the Chief
Forester's invitation at first, he being an old friend of my father."
"How long have you been back in Europe, Herr Von Blanden?" asked the Doctor.
"I have been in Europe for two years; but during that time I have exhausted the romance of the south; spent two
summers on the Italian lakes, whose charms are indescribable! I have seen the Highland lakes in the giant mountains of
Thibet and the sun of Palestine; yet the peculiarity of a Lago Maggiore; that balminess that hovers over the water, the
islands, the shores, cannot be found elsewhere! My father's death, two month's ago, recalled me to East Prussia; it
marked a turning point in my life."
"You became rich," said the Doctor.
"I have never needed to trouble myself about money, and I consider that a great advantage. Those are unhappy
mortals who, amongst all the other ills of life, must also take that vile metal into consideration in everything that they do
or wish! Is there a more inconsolable slavery than that of dependance upon money? Therein consists the happiness of
riches, that they do not know these limits."
"The German student does not know them either," interposed the Doctor, "or, rather, will not know them. Youth is
free! But the unpaid accounts follow us for many long years, and a frowning father reminds us that this youthful freedom
belongs to the kingdom of dreams."
"Thus, it was not that," continued Blanden, "which made such a metamorphosis in my life; yet I returned with the
firm determination to put an end, at last, to the epoch of adventures by land and sea; not to seek an object in life in the
refined, inordinate longing after enjoyment of travelling; not in the varying circumstances which it offers to the mind and
heart, but rather in active, earnest work, and, above all, by these means, to extinguish the unpleasant recollections that
cling to my past."
"Youthful recollections!" said the Doctor, as he removed his felt hat, and took advantage of its pliability to press it
into diverse forms, "who has not similar ones to note down in his diaries? And, after all, one may ask if these
wanderings astray do not give more worth to life, than our exertions drawn by rule and measure?"
"But, at some time, one must put an end to it, I feel that! Far abroad as one may have wandered, a man must
sometime prove to his nearest, his relations, his country associates that he has changed, that he can do something, can
work, that he can do his duty to his neighbour, although he may see farther than they all."
"It does not require much to do that," said the Doctor, as he pushed his somewhat tangled hair from his forehead.
"Our landed gentry's horizon does not extend far beyond the price of corn in summer, beyond l'ombre and sleighing
parties in the winter. Here they possess a peculiar instrument called a zoche, with which they attack Mother Earth's
body! All the world uses the plough; here they have the zoche, a two-legged agricultural implement of very ancient
date! This zoche is a species of East Prussian symbol; we do not imitate it, but that which we possess ourselves is still
less worthy of imitation."
"I must defend my brother squires, best of Doctors," replied Von Blanden, "there are many sterling, educated men
amongst them, and especially amongst those whom I must still reckon as my opponents, to gain whose friendship is a
wish very dear to my heart. Yes, dear Doctor," continued von Blanden, "I am contented with the spirit which now
pervades this province, and the conditions are favourable to my plan. Here we have a public life, which, until now, has
been wanting; the political spirit is awakened, and, if it was always painful for me, in the midst of the life and bustle of
London and Paris, where great political questions stirred all minds, to think of the intensely quiet home and its
inhabitants, who, like political backwoodsmen, live in the densest gloom of ignorance and indifference, now a joyous
feeling fills me at the thought that the first pulse's throbs of constitutional existence are heard here, that all Germany
gazes at the Baltic shores, at our East Prussia."
The Doctor shook his head.
"It may be, may be! It is a little better than formerly; but all politics are merely a struggle about forms! No one
becomes happier by them. A more deeply penetrating revolution is necessary. The old views of the world must change
their grooves."
"Those were the dreams of my youth! I longed for a new religion, which should develop itself out of the old one; yet
one learns gradually to limit oneself to the Possible. You are still a young man; I am thirty-six years old; a decade lies
between us! At that age I was an enthusiast like you! Now, I look upon the groundwork of political liberty as the most
worthy object to strive for, by means of which we first become the equals of other nations. My wishes are to be elected
to the Provincial...
